Greenville County Thanksgiving Tournament Day 1 Recap

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>High School Basketball is back in the State of South Carolina! The first event on my agenda for Feast Week in the Upstate was the 2023 Greenville County Thanksgiving Tournament hosted by Eastside High School. Take a look at a recap from Monday's two games:</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:separator --> <hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity" /> <!-- /wp:separator --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Monday's Final Scores:</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Wade Hampton 74, Pickens 49</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Eastside 86, Southside 64</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:separator --> <hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity" /> <!-- /wp:separator --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Wade Hampton Defensive Pressure and Athleticism Causes Problems for Pickens </strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>In the tournament's opening game, the Wade Hampton Generals dominated the Pickens Blue Flame with their full-court press, sheer size and athleticism. The Generals built an early lead through this and the Blue Flame weren't able to get into much of a rhythm offensively. Wade Hampton was relentless in their pressure for most of the game and finished with a 74-49 victory to move onto the Second Round of the Greenville County Thanksgiving Tournament. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Impressive Performances from the Generals' Backcourt</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Senior Guards KD Owens and KJ Banks were impressive for Wade Hampton in the win. KD Owens had 13 points and KJ Banks had 8 Points and 4 Assists - neither of them playing in the 4th Quarter - to help boost the Generals on Monday. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Bench Boosts from Pitts and Hargraves</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Andrew Pitts and Pierce Hargraves both had impressive games off the bench for the Generals in their win. Pitts, a sophomore big, came in and had a solid impact on the first half, putting up 6 points and bringing in 3 rebounds. He has good size and fluid movement which helped cause problems for the Second Unit of the Blue Flame. Hargraves caught fire from beyond the arc in the second half. He hit 4 threes to help seal the victory for the Generals.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Bright Spots for the Blue Flame</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Juniors Carter McKenzie and Eli Doty were both bright spots for Pickens in the game. McKenzie had a couple of strong takes and finishes, but also did a solid job of finding teammates for open shots. Doty was the beneficiary of some of those McKenzie dimes. He finished with a game-high 19 Points and 6 Rebounds including a couple of the offensive end that led to put-backs. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:separator --> <hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity" /> <!-- /wp:separator --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Hosts Defeat Southside in the Nightcap</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>In the second and final game of the night, the Eastside Eagles defeated the Southside Tigers to move on in the Winner's Bracket. The Eagles got big performances from their stars: 25 Points and 8 Rebounds for [player_tooltip player_id='1172558' first='Justin' last='Ray'], 21 Points and 5 Assists from [player_tooltip player_id='1524288' first='Matthew' last='Roberts']. The game was close for the entirety of the first half, but early in the 3rd Quarter Eastside pulled away and would go on to win the game 86-64.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Senior and Freshman Guards Go Bucket-for-Bucket</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The headline matchup of Day 1 at the Greenville County Thanksgiving tournament was between two of the top Guards in their respective classes in the state: Senior [player_tooltip player_id='1172558' first='Justin' last='Ray'] vs Freshman [player_tooltip player_id='1737994' first='Jaden' last='Johnson']. And it did not disappoint. Both had terrific games as Ray finished with 25 Points and Johnson finished with 31 Points. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Strong Night From Eagles' Supporting Cast</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>In addition to the big games from Ray and Roberts, Eastside had some other players step up to boost them to victory. Forwards Hunter Wall (11 Points and 4 Rebounds) and [player_tooltip player_id='1738026' first='Jaquavious' last='Dodd'] (8 Points and 6 Rebounds) used their size advantage to wear down Southside in the Second Half. Wall, in particular, had some good moments scoring off the dribble including a late And-One. Those two will likely have important roles in the late-season success of this Eagle team. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->